Book News

On Thursday, April 29, BookSense.com announced that bookstore sites could begin taking pre-orders for former President Bill Clinton's memoir, My Life, which will be published at the end of June by Knopf.

BookSense.com joined other online retailers that had already begun pre-selling the highly anticipated book, which has not yet been assigned a price or ISBN by the publisher.

Carl Lennertz, vice president of independent retailing at HarperCollins, former senior consultant to ABA's Book Sense marketing program, and friend to independent booksellers everywhere, shares his thoughts about his new role as author of May Book Sense Pick Cursed by a Happy Childhood (Harmony).

By Carl Lennertz

In The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations (Doubleday), James Surowiecki talks about how we run businesses, fight terrorism, structure political systems, perform scientific research, walk through crowded streets, and drive on tightly packed highways.

The May 10 issue of the New Yorker, on sale May 3, will once again include a special insert featuring Book Sense and great gift book recommendations from independent booksellers. "Bound to Please" suggests appropriate titles for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduation gifts and notes that books " can both commemorate a special moment and later, offer the pleasure of rediscovery -- something few gifts can do."

The 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, June 4, during this year's BookExpo America (BEA) in Chicago. Here, BTW takes a look at the five finalists in the Adult Fiction category. (For the complete list of finalists, click here.)

All nominated authors and illustrators are being invited to attend the award ceremonies and the Book Sense Lunch, also to be held on Friday, June 4, at BEA.

On Wednesday, April 21, both the Oprah and Today Show book clubs announced their new picks.

Oprah has selected The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books) as the next title to be read by her book club.

The 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, June 4, during this year's BookExpo America (BEA) in Chicago. Here, BTW takes a look at the five finalists in the Adult Nonfiction category. (For the complete list of finalists, click here.)

All nominated authors and illustrators are being invited to attend the award ceremonies and the Book Sense Lunch, also to be held on Friday, June 4, at BEA.

To mark National Poetry Month, BTW recently interviewed poet Olena Kalytiak Davis, whose Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, and Other Off and Back Handed Importunities (Tin House/Bloomsbury) is a Spring 2004 Book Sense Poetry Top Ten Pick.

The 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, June 4, during this year's BookExpo America (BEA). Here, BTW takes a look at the 10 finalists in the two children's categories -- Children's Literature and Children's Illustrated. (For the complete list of finalists, click here; for a closer look at the Paperback finalists, click here.)

Book Sense -- the campaign that embodies the passion, personality, character, community, and knowledge of independent bookstores -- has announced the Best Books: The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years. The list is the result of voting by independent booksellers across the country, who cast ballots for the titles they most enjoyed handselling over the past five years.

Here is a preview of the May "Book Sense Picks." This list marks the debut of the new format and structure of the booksellers' recommendations component of the Book Sense program. Thanks to the widespread participation of booksellers from coast to coast, it is an especially strong list, with a wonderful range of titles, voices, and publishers.

Inner Ocean Publishing has teamed up with MoveOn, the grassroots civic action group, to publish MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change, a collection of 50 call-to-action essays by everyday people who were inspired to act for change in their community.

The 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, June 4, during this year's BookExpo America in Chicago. Here, BTW takes a look at the five finalists in the Paperback category. (For the complete list of finalists, click here.)

All nominated authors and illustrators are being invited to attend the award ceremonies and the Book Sense 76 Lunch, also to be held on Friday, June 4, at BEA.

Based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S., for the four-week period ending April 4, 2004.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Edward P. Jones' The Known World (Amistad/HarperCollins) has been awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Before it won the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in early March, The Known World was recognized by independent booksellers as a Top Ten September/October 2003 Book Sense 76 Pick.